


Promises to Keep

by Corehealer



Series: EmetWoL Event - Valentione's Week 2021 [1]
Category: Ascian - Fandom, Final Fantasy XIV, Shadowbringers - Fandom
Genre: Devotion, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Love Letters, Memory Loss, Other, Promises, Regret, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:15:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29342682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corehealer/pseuds/Corehealer
Summary: EmetWoL Valentione's Week 2021 is soon to arrive and I wanted to post one of the pieces I've written for it a bit early, so that I can share and gush but also to set up the compilation for the other works prior to the week of the event. Please look forward to it, and all the delicious Sarah-Selch ship action I have planned. :3Each of the works in this event series will be relatively short, sweet and soft/fluffy, with a bit of angst but more of a focus on romance and lighthearted moments. Additionally, Sarah's other ships will be present in a few places, alongside a few throwbacks to Azemet and their Ancient relationship, but the principal focus is on her relationship with Emet-Selch/Hades in the here and now.In this first piece, for the day one prompt Love Letter, Sarah has discovered a letter left on Emet-Selch's desk in the recreated Amaurot, and has read its contents. Emet-Selch, while looking for her in the Capitol, finds her in his office rather than her own and decides to see what she has found there.
Relationships: Azem/Emet-Selch (Final Fantasy XIV), Emet-Selch (Final Fantasy XIV)/Original Character(s), Emet-Selch/Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV)
Series: EmetWoL Event - Valentione's Week 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2155329
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Promises to Keep

‘ _Dearest Hades_ ,’

‘ _I don’t entirely know what to write here, in honesty. For once, my talent for writing fails me. But I will try, regardless, to explain_.’

‘ _Given our conversations of late, and all that has occurred within the Convocation the last few days, I feel at a loss for what more I could say to you, or to them. But… I know I’ve left too much unsaid, between everything else that’s happened. Most especially between us. And I know I want to commit as much of it as I can to words now, before circumstances take me away from your side. So it is that I hope you’ll find this letter swiftly once I’m gone_.’

‘ _By the time you read these words, I will have departed for the east, to retrieve my friends outside the city and bring them to the relative safety of Amaurot. Regardless of my feelings on the matter of Zodiark, and the other failed solutions to our troubles of late, I know I need them by my side right now. You will argue I must remain. And I will say no. So it is that I write this and leave it for you to find, because I am tired of arguing over these things with you._ ’

‘ _I cannot abandon them, Hades. I cannot leave them to be consumed by the growing flames that engulf our world, no matter what comes next. These people who have been so instrumental to my role, who have kept my counsel and company out in the wilds and within the other cities. These people who opened their homes to me, and who are dear to my heart, as you are. I cannot continue on as I have without knowing what has become of them out there._ ’

‘ _In truth, this decision is as much one driven by the Convocation as by my own desires. As I said that fateful day not long ago; my role itself and all that I hold dear is undermined by this choice, this ‘solution’, that you and the others have acquiesced to. I cannot in good conscience allow for something that seems so uncontrollable to be loosed on the Star and upon our people, no matter how desperate the demands of our current moment are_.’

‘ _I had thought, in the end, that you would listen to me and side with me against them, when all the others relented. That you would understand that this is madness, regardless of the circumstances. That you would see reason._ ’

‘ _But you have not. And, so, neither shall I, save for that which abides in my heart now. My own reasons to fulfill. With or without you_.’

‘ _Whether or not we all survive whatever is to come, however, I cannot leave knowing your heart and mine remain bitter over this. Over the things that have now come between us, after a long life together. I needed to let you know, to put down in words, that you ever remain my dearest friend, and the dark shadow within which my light can shine brightest. The enveloping safety of your darkness as it wraps around my soul… to think upon it now, even in words on a page… it fair makes my heart sing. A memory that brings a smile to my face as you always succeed in doing_.’

‘ _I cannot do otherwise, but to follow this course I have chosen. But it is a heavy heart that walks outside the city now, knowing you will read these words and long for my presence, as I will long for yours. To tell you again how you make me feel, and how much of a comfort you have been throughout my life. How you have kept me going, especially these last few years, through all the pain and long nights spent in worry_.’

‘ _I will, with that in mind, go swiftly into the world and find and save what souls I can. I will bring them home. And mark me, my love. I will return home. I will return home to you, as soon as I am able_.’

‘ _Should the worst come to pass as well… I want you to know this as well, my love. That I will find you._ ’

‘ _Even if not in this life, or if not for a long time, longer than I can as yet know… I will find you. Even should fate itself conspire to separate us and keep us apart, I will reach out to you. I will find you, wherever you may be. I will come running. And I know you will do the same_.’

‘ _I will go with that hope in my heart, and keep it close throughout the hardships ahead. I promise_.’

‘ _Pray keep my Amanuensis Ariadne safe for me. She will be as hurt at my absence as you surely will be. Reach out to her and be her friend in this moment. We all need someone to lean on right now, and I suspect you both will feel my departure less keenly with each other for company._ ’

 _'And please… my dearest Hades… remember me. Whatever else happens, remember me. As I will remember you, forevermore. I love you Hades. And I always will_.’

‘ _In apology, and in deepest love_ ,’

‘ _Your Persephone_.’

***

The most striking thing for her about this letter wasn’t so much the contents, as she read them sitting at his desk, but that the paper still retained traces of tear stains in the margins and corners. She could not tell if they had been her own, from that other time, or his. Certainly, she could not remember writing the letter, or the conversations mentioned in it except in dimmest familiarity. Given that this was a memory of a love letter that he had placed here in his recreated city, however, she assumed it was his tears.

Upon concluding reading the letter, a few more tears stained the paper, as her emotions rose low in her chest at its contents. The letter had drawn her attention not long after she’d entered this room, and had been the last thing she had expected to find. Now it drowned out all other thoughts and feelings.

Sarah sat at the desk in Emet-Selch’s office and gradually lifted her eyes from the desk and the letter atop it to now regard once more the darkened room around her. The only light in this place was from the lamp on his desk and the cyan blue light of the ocean, gently churning outside the window behind her. She presently wiped her face down with the hem of her robe as she sat, lost in thought.

She had read the letter from the light of both, having come into his office while wandering the Capitol offices of the phantom Amaurot, looking for things that might help her remember herself. She’d paused and hesitated at her own door, that of Azem’s own office, and for lieu of venturing there first had opted for the next most relevant one instead. He had, after all, been her husband, and that she did remember, after relatively recent events.

“ _I had a feeling I would find you here_.”

Speaking of, the man himself was now present, leaning at the door, arms folded and smiling in that soft manner that she could not help but return whenever she saw it, as she did now looking over to him. He was wearing his Ascian robes for a change, mimicking her own, something she had donned upon entering this building anew. It had felt appropriate somehow, as if following some memory of her attire among the Convocation.

After a brief moment of surprise, she spoke.

“Hello, Hades. I was… just wandering around, trying to get my bearings.”

“ _True to your role as ever, my dear. There is no need to worry about entering unannounced; you are always welcome in my office, Azem._ ”

Her smile widened slightly, noticing the way he was echoing the times she had said such things to him in her own office.

His eyes gradually landed on the open letter in front of her on the desk.

“ _What’s that you have there_?”

She paused a moment, looking back down at the letter.

“I… admittedly did not expect to find a love letter of all things waiting for me on your desk.”

His smile lowered into something sadder, at the mention of the letter.

“ _I see… I imagine you do not remember writing it_.”

“No, I do not. I remember you telling me about our final conversation… prior to my departure. But I do not remember it either. And this letter suggests that I anticipated not having such a final conversation at all, given its apparent intent.”

He motioned from the door to the side of the chair where she sat behind the desk, placing a hand on her shoulder with his clawed gloves.

“ _You had intended to give me the slip, after becoming frustrated from days of arguments and the final meeting of the Convocation you attended in your capacity as Azem. You forswore your role after it became apparent… that we would not be swayed by your arguments any longer. Regarding Zodiark_.”

“Those were more difficult days than I realized, I think.”

“ _Indeed_.”

She sighed and leaned back into the chair.

“I can’t imagine that final conversation was at all pleasant. You never did give me all the details, and I can only imagine that this is part of why.”

“ _It is not a happy memory by any means. For all the reasons you know and can infer_.”

“What did I even say to you?”

“ _Much the same as what you said in the letter, my dear. And you meant every word of it. In the end, I let you go. I knew you would not be swayed any more than I would be. And we departed with a kiss and a wave, as we always did before…_ ”

He stared off into the middle distance for a moment, furrowing his brows, as she looked back up over to him, doing much the same while trying to remember that moment. She could tell by the feelings that welled up in her heart that the letter and his recollection spoke true of it, even if she couldn’t gather all the specifics of what they had said to one another now.

After a few moments in silence, she spoke again to reassure him, and try to shift the subject into a happier direction.

“I am relieved, then, that I did make good on that promise eventually, from the end of the letter. Even if it took all this time and your help to realize it in the end.”

He smiled down at her and hugged her from around the back of the chair, his greater height allowing for a fuller embrace despite the chair’s length.

“ _Despite everything, you always came home to us, to me, in the end. I hoped then as I did many a year afterwards that you would do so again. And you did. Just after far longer than either of us expected_.”

She nodded, nuzzling a bit into his arms. He’d kept faith with her, even after everything she’d put him through. She would always be grateful for that.

With that and the letter in mind, now seemed a good reason to give him something she had been saving for some time.

“Hades?”

“ _Yes, Sarah_?”

She reached into the innermost pocket of her robe, where she kept her Azem crystal, after a moment of squeezing her arm through his embrace to reach it. She produced a small letter of her own, written on vellum she’d borrowed from the Ul’dah Ossuary, from the last time she’d visited there for her research.

She handed him the letter as he relented from his embrace to accept it.

“ _What might this be_?”

“Something I wrote not long ago, when we were in the Stones together. I wanted it to be a surprise for you, something reflecting that moment of our newfound circumstances and renewed relationship. I’d forgotten it for a time what with everything that’s been going on. Now seems as good a time as any to give it to you, given my other, older letter.”

He smiled a bit before cracking the seal and opening the folded parchment, reading slowly to take in all the lines.

***

‘ _Dear Hades_ ,’

‘ _I have no idea when I plan to give you this letter, but I felt that I needed to get my feelings down while I still had them fresh at hand after our reunion of the day prior. You can think of this as a little memory preservation of my own, even if it isn’t as fancy as a stone thousands of years old holding all your memories of me_.’

‘ _I think often, these days, about all the moments we shared on the First, prior to when I knew you for who you really were, and saw you with my own eyes unclouded. About all the arguments we had, and the sarcastic back and forth you’d always give me when I asked my endless questions of you, trying even then to understand and perhaps remember. About all the bitter words we snapped out at one another towards the end, and the way in which we tried to kill each other in ignorance_.’

‘ _I regret many things in my life, with all the sadness and loss I’ve experienced even in just this relatively short lifespan the sundered possess. But I regret few things more than what I did to all of you, our friends and peers, and what I did to you especially most of all. Not just then, but now, in this life. Even with all that I’ve learned since that day I put a hole through you, I can only imagine how it must have felt to see me as I came to see you, even as I ended you. After all that time waiting, hoping_.’

‘ _That was the moment that I felt deepest sadness, and which prompted in me realization. Which focused my efforts towards undoing what I had done to you_.’

‘ _I imagine, had things been different, that I would not have been able to find the means, or you might not have anticipated every move I made prior, despite how uncharacteristic that is for you. And that we would have been separated again, but with it being my turn to remember you as you remembered me. I shudder to think how many tears I would have shed had this failure been made permanent_.’

‘ _But… even as I stopped to think on that possibility, I considered something else, which is what really drove me to write this letter for you now. That, even had things come to pass in that manner, that I would have done as you did regardless, and remembered you, all the days of my life. And sought you out in all the lives to come after, following the trail you would surely leave for me in the Lifestream_.’

‘ _That, no matter how long it took and how much fate conspired against us, I would find you again someday, and in that time and place embrace you as you deserved. To cherish you again as you cherished me all those years I was gone_.’

‘ _I see then, with that in mind, how fortunate I was to find my way to you in this life, the one you helped to show me. That you helped to prepare for yourself in your own ways, following your hopes. And I realize how special this all is to me, and how much I want to do all that I can to cherish that love, that seed of hope for our future now, given what might have been. That I am fortunate to call you mine, here in the present_.’

‘ _I hope with time that I will remember more of who I was when I was Persephone and can one day embrace her memory again. But I also feel great gratitude and joy that it is me you love, as you loved her, who I once was. That you came to see me as worthy of her memory, as I came to see you as worthy of redemption, and of deepest love and affection_.’

‘ _Even after so short a time together, here and now, I cannot imagine my life without you. And so I will endeavour not to any longer, and simply find what happiness I can here with you. And whatever comes after, whatever fate has in store for us next, I know that even if we are separated again, I will find you again. And so will you_.’

‘ _I’ll always call you mine. My heart. My Hades. Whatever life it might be in. No matter what happens_.’

‘ _I hope someday too, that we can make good on what we never had a chance to do in that other life. And that, if the future is kind, we can find a way to never be parted again in this life. I suspect you can teach me a thing or two about living forever, after all_.’

‘ _In any case, I’ve rambled on long enough with my quill. You are asleep right now, and I will soon rest alongside you. And I am grateful for even just that simple thing more than words can say_.’

‘ _I love you, Hades. And I always will. Thank you for being in my humble little life_.’

‘ _Yours in all lives_ ,’

‘ _Sarah._ ’

***

By the end of his reading of this new letter, tear stains came to stain it as the other letter had been. He had no words, and could not pry his eyes from the letter for a good few moments afterwards, managing only to place one of his hands to his face to dry his eyes, albeit futilely.

“That bad, huh? I am still attempting to impr-”

Her words of sarcasm were cut short by the sudden embrace of his lips on hers, as he continued to tear up a bit with happiness and wrapped both his arms tightly around her, fairly lifting her from the chair. She squeaked a bit in surprise before settling into his emotional hug, standing up from the chair beside him and reciprocating his embrace as fully as she could.

After a long time like this, he managed to come up for air long enough to speak.

“ _I love you, Sarah. And I always will_.”

“I know. And I’ll always love you too.”

They returned to their kiss, and stayed in his office for long bells, giving in to their desire to merely be present with one another and cherish this moment.

**Author's Note:**

> As is the case with my formal series shipping Emet-Selch with my Warrior of Light (which this is a seasonal event extension of), I italicize Emet's speech here out of respect and admiration for him and to add definition to his words when he speaks in a scene. Just for clarification.
> 
> Small amounts of context on the setting for these Valentione's Day event pieces can be gleaned from the most recent work of my main series with Sarah and Emet-Selch, but I will largely be keeping the contents neutral to fanon plot developments.


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